launch of masshousing’ s downpayment assistance program · 3% second mortgage is a fully...
TRANSCRIPT
444 North Capitol Street NW, Suite 438 | Washington, DC 20001 | 202-624-7710 | [email protected] | ncsha.org
Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
MassHousing Communications: Creative Media
HFA Staff Contact Nancy McDonald
2019 Annual Awards for Program Excellence Entry
MassHousing Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
Communications / Creative Media Introduction As 2018 began, would-be Massachusetts homebuyers faced a daunting housing market: The cost of homes and condos continued to rise while supply dwindled. The immutable laws of supply and demand kicked in. Between January 2016 and January 2018, the median sale price of a Massachusetts home, according to Zillow, rose by almost 9 percent from $327,000 to $356,000. And the inventory of homes was shrinking. Back in September of 2006, there were 38,000 homes on the market in the state. In December of 2017, there were fewer than 10,000. It is as simple and as complicated as the comment offered by Eric Berman of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, who was quoted in a March 2018 news articles as saying, “The problem is there are no homes for sale.” In turn of course, the challenge is that when home prices increase, so does the required downpayment. A 10% downpayment on a $356,000 home is $35,600, while even a 3% downpayment – which MassHousing allows for its home mortgage loans on single-family homes and condos - is $10,680. As in so many states, the rise in home prices and required downpayments was putting the dream of homeownership further and further out of reach for low- and moderate-income renters. Public officials and the real estate industry routinely look to MassHousing for solutions to housing affordability crises. Since its creation more than 50 years ago, MassHousing has provided more than $23.9 billion in total financing for affordable housing, $12 billion of which has financed mortgage loans for 93,000 homebuyers and homeowners. In late 2017, it was clear to MassHousing’s leaders that thousands of potential homebuyers were staying on the sidelines because of their inability to provide a downpayment, even with MassHousing’s low down-payment requirement of just 3%. The record-low inventory, rising home prices, high rents, and student loan debt all made it more difficult for the average Massachusetts household to save for a downpayment. Conventional, for-profit lenders – constrained by stockholders and other institutional barriers – do not usually provide any relief on downpayments, other than offering some loans with downpayments of 3%. MassHousing saw an opportunity not only to meet its mission but also to establish a competitive advantage. As a public, mission-oriented organization, MassHousing is not constrained in the same ways as conventional lenders and was able to marshal the resources for a Downpayment Assistance (DPA) program.
MassHousing Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
Communications / Creative Media
2
The Agency’s DPA program finances up to 3% of the purchase price of a home, allowing for 100% financing with a MassHousing first mortgage, for creditworthy, income-eligible borrowers. This 3% second mortgage is a fully amortizing 15-year fixed-rate loan, with an interest rate of 1%. The DPA second mortgage carries no additional fees and is due upon the sale or refinancing of the property. Downpayment assistance is capped at 3% of the purchase price, or up to $12,000. Statement of Objectives MassHousing’s Communications and Marketing teams sought to: • Increase public awareness of the program • Drive prospective homebuyers to the MassHousing website • Increase the number of subscribers to MassHousing’s Homebuyer Tips email newsletter • Increase lending volume to homebuyers Program Planning and Strategy • Pitch the Boston Globe on the DPA program and seek an exclusive story from them • Issue a press release, both locally and nationally • Promote the program via social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) • Publish a new, DPA-specific web page on masshousing.com • Produce a large postcard-style brochure for consumers to receive at homebuyer education
classes and homebuyer fairs • Publish stories about DPA in the monthly MassHousing Update email newsletter and bi-
weekly MassHousing Homebuyer Tips emails to would-be homebuyers • Incorporate the DPA program into an ongoing digital ad campaign • Inform and educate our partner lenders who could promote DPA with their customers • Run trade publication ads targeting partner lenders and Realtors® • Develop a profile of a MassHousing customer who bought a home and used the DPA program Results Documentation • On March 18, 2018, the Boston Globe newspaper published an exclusive story announcing
MassHousing’s DPA program with the headline, “New MassHousing Mortgage Program Requires No Downpayment.” The story was accompanied by a sidebar piece with the headline, “Here’s What You Need to Know About MassHousing’s Zero Downpayment Program” that provided the key details of the DPA program.
• The Boston Globe article was posted on the MassHousing Facebook page and went on to be shared 696 times, reaching 31,627 people, with 8,846 engagements, and 231 likes.
• The post of the MassHousing press release on Facebook was shared 383 times, reaching 36,311 people, with 5,063 engagements, and 216 likes.
MassHousing Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
Communications / Creative Media
3
• In the first 10 days after the Globe stories and the MassHousing announcement, MassHousing received more than 1,600 sales leads from interested customers through the MassHousing website – including 500 alone the day after the Globe story ran. After that 10-day period we continued to receive about 100 leads per day.
• Our daily MassHousing website page views increased upwards of 25% from approximately 9,000 to 11,000 with 20,000 page views the day after the Globe stories ran.
• The DPA page on the MassHousing website has been viewed 53,000 times. • MassHousing’s Homebuyer Tips email subscriber list has gone from 1,771 recipients in March
2018 to 16,363 in March 2019, an increase of 824 percent. • News stories of the DPA announcement were published in local and national media,
including:
o The Associated Press o Banker and Tradesman o CBS Boston TV o The Berkshire Eagle o Builder Magazine o National Mortgage Professional
Magazine o The Sacramento Bee
o The Boston University Daily Free Press o The Sampan (New England’s only bilingual
Chinese-English newspaper) o Next City (a nonprofit organization with a
mission to inspire social, economic and environmental change in cities through journalism and events around the world).
• Most importantly, to date, 1,213 homebuyers have used MassHousing’s DPA to buy a home with first mortgage financing totaling more than $285 million and more than $8.7 million in DPA financing. Beyond these numbers are more than 1,200 households from all walks life who have been able to achieve the benefits of owning their own homes who may not have been able to realize the joys of homeownership without MassHousing’s DPA program. Creating a new program is powerful – but without advertising and marketing – it can only go so far. MassHousing’s marketing for this program made the difference.
Boston Globe, March 18, 2018https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/03/18/new-masshousing-mortgage-program-doesn-require-down-payment/hB4uBAirICrBGbCLrinP3O/story.html
Next City, March 27, 2018https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/down-payment-assistance-program-meets-people-where-they-are?fbclid=IwAR1kK5gdLXOUyKLH2X9cmckY_JNv9WlKGePIr7OkAMJAyCvpBvX-NhyTTzc
News Coverage
Berkshire Eagle, March 27, 2018https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/lowering-barriers-to-home-ownership-masshousing-offering-new-down-payment-program,535559?fbclid=IwAR0ZWojZFhvFvnsU1wJ8iC2XeyRKxxXUvAVtuRP_YLYCXb033405VC4uRa4
MassHousing Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
Communications/Creative Media
MassHousing.com Web Page https://www.masshousing.com/dpa
Homebuying Tips, March 15, 2019http://conta.cc/2FOgVPC
MassHousing Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
Communications/Creative Media
DPA Borrower Profilehttps://www.masshousing.com/portal/server.pt/community/borrower_profiles/355/latisha_steele
DPA Borrower Profilehttps://www.masshousing.com/portal/server.pt/community/borrower_profiles/355/jordan_banach
MassHousing Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
Communications/Creative Media
Sample Social Media Posts
MassHousing Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
Communications/Creative Media
Ad Campaign Components
MassHousing Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
Communications/Creative Media
Postcard produced in English, Spanish and PortugueseMassHousing
Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program Communications/Creative Media
Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency One Beacon Street, Boston MA 02108 TEL 617.854.1000 | FAX 617.854.1091 | VP: 857.366.4157 | www.masshousing.com Media Contacts Paul McMorrow: 617.854.1141 | [email protected] Tom Farmer: 617.854.1843 | [email protected]
MassHousing Announces Down Payment Assistance Program
New loan program will allow creditworthy low-, moderate- and middle-income households to achieve homeownership without making a down payment
BOSTON – March 19, 2018 – Today MassHousing announced the launch of a new down payment assistance program designed to lower the barriers to achieving homeownership working households face. MassHousing’s new down payment assistance program will allow qualified first-time homebuyers to finance up to 100 percent of the purchase price of their first home. MassHousing is now the only entity offering a down payment assistance program for low-, moderate- and middle-income buyers throughout Massachusetts, and the only entity in Massachusetts offering a sustainable, conventional mortgage product allowing buyers to achieve homeownership without making a down payment. “Record-low inventory levels, rising home prices, high rents, and student loan debt are all making it more difficult for the average Massachusetts household to afford to purchase a home,” said MassHousing Executive Director Chrystal Kornegay. “MassHousing’s new down payment assistance program will help ensure that homeownership remains accessible to working families, by allowing creditworthy homebuyers to buy their first home with little to no down payment requirement. By boosting the buying power of low-, moderate- and middle-income households, MassHousing will support investment in neighborhoods, help the state’s workforce remain rooted in Massachusetts, and advance the Agency’s mission of confronting housing challenges facing the Commonwealth, to improve the lives of its people.” MassHousing is making down payment assistance loans available to first-time homebuyers with annual household incomes at or below the area median income, using MassHousing financing to purchase a single-family home or condominium unit. The area median income varies by county. Eligible households will earn $103,4000 or less in eastern Massachusetts, $85,700 in Worcester County, and $67,200 in Berkshire County. Homebuyers accessing down payment assistance must still meet MassHousing’s underwriting criteria, including minimum credit score and debt-to-income qualifications, and attend a homeownership education class.
MassHousing Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
Communications/Creative Media
MassHousing Announces Down Payment Assistance Program
| Page 2 of 2 |
MassHousing mortgages currently finance up to 97 percent of a home purchase price. The Agency’s new down payment assistance program will finance up to an additional 3 percent of the purchase price, allowing for up to 100 percent financing for creditworthy income-eligible borrowers. Down payment assistance will be a fully amortizing 15-year, fixed-rate second mortgage, with an interest rate of 1 percent. The down payment assistance loan will carry no additional fees, and will be due in full upon the sale or refinancing of the property. Down payment assistance will be capped at 3 percent of the purchase price, up to $12,000. Down payment assistance loans will be internally subsidized by the strength of the Agency’s existing single-family portfolio. The program will not require any additional allocation of funds, or the diversion of funds from other Agency uses. MassHousing does not use taxpayer dollars to sustain its operations. MassHousing finances home purchases through a network of more than 160 banks, credit unions and mortgage companies. Down payment assistance will launch alongside a simplification and consolidation the Agency’s mortgage products. The new mortgage products, including down payment assistance, are available to consumers immediately. The new down payment assistance program for low-, moderate- and middle-income households complements MassHousing’s ongoing efforts to support workforce housing. The Agency has also created a $100 million workforce housing fund to spur the creation of 1,000 new apartments affordable to middle-income renters. In partnership with the Baker-Polito Administration’s Housing Choice Initiative, MassHousing is advancing measures to boost the production of new housing, and deliver 135,000 new housing units by the year 2025. About MassHousing MassHousing (The Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency) is an independent, quasi-public agency created in 1966 and charged with providing financing for affordable housing in Massachusetts. The Agency raises capital by selling bonds and lends the proceeds to low- and moderate-income homebuyers and homeowners, and to developers who build or preserve affordable and/or mixed-income rental housing. MassHousing does not use taxpayer dollars to sustain its operations, although it administers some publicly funded programs on behalf of the Commonwealth. Since its inception, MassHousing has provided more than $22 billion for affordable housing. For more information, visit the MassHousing website at www.masshousing.com, follow us on Twitter @MassHousing, subscribe to our blog and Like us on Facebook.
###
MassHousing Launch of MassHousing’s Downpayment Assistance Program
Communications/Creative Media